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DJM N gauge Crowdfunded King Class Steam Loco has started


DJM Dave
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Now it comes to the crunch I'm agonising over whether to have one in British Railways blue or lined green.  I'd like a G *crest* W one as well but honestly can't push the budget to three kings.

ah but you know that 3 kings coming up to Christmas is very relevant!

and they come from the orient!

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I hope the orders are going well. I have a hotmail account and hotmail decided to automatically put the email from DJ Models into junk. As I have a quick look at my junk box from time to time I found it but it might be that some people with hotmail accounts haven't actually seen the  email from DJ Models because of this. I don't know what can be done about it but it may be a cause for some people who expressed an interest not raising an order.

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I hope the orders are going well. I have a hotmail account and hotmail decided to automatically put the email from DJ Models into junk. As I have a quick look at my junk box from time to time I found it but it might be that some people with hotmail accounts haven't actually seen the email from DJ Models because of this. I don't know what can be done about it but it may be a cause for some people who expressed an interest not raising an order.

Same here, Hotmail put my account creation and order confirmation emails in the junk folder. It must have failed some sort of check, but I have no idea.

 

The strange thing is, the email sent out before that saying to order the Kings, went in my inbox. Weird.

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Same here, Hotmail put my account creation and order confirmation emails in the junk folder. It must have failed some sort of check, but I have no idea.

 

The strange thing is, the email sent out before that saying to order the Kings, went in my inbox. Weird.

 

Hotmail will junk any email it suspects is a mass mailshot.  From memory its somewhere between 10 and 25 recipients and if there are more it damns it as spam.

 

In business we used to send bulk emails in batches of 10 to be sure as in the old days other providers like Comuserve, yahoo mail and others did the same..

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Hi everyone,

Crowdfunding pre-orders have been open around a month on this project and at present we are at the following figures to share with you.

 

Original Crowdfunder sign ups / 'expressions of interest' = 706

Current Crowdfunder deposits paid                                  = 264

 

Now on paper, as you read this, it seems a problem. But what needs to be remembered is that the crowdfunding was open many many months to get to the 706 figure, as information takes time to 'propagate' through the press, internet, clubs etc and reach the consciousness of the modeller who still might want a King but didn't, express, and those that did but as yet dont realise the deposit payments are now open. so please spread the word if your able.

 

Things are progressing though , and i have paid a deposit to China against the tooling, and am still trying to get a 3D company to print the models for display at upcoming shows. I'm surprised at the amount of professional companies that don't want the business and say its too difficult. so the search continues.

 

More updates when i have them

cheers

Dave

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I see that as a disappointing response. All those who expressed an interest knew that the deposit would be due around now if not earlier. The payment is not a huge amount of cash and if you commit to something you should make sure you have the means to pay for it when required.

Of course there will be a bit of a delay for many payments and some will have to drop out due to a change of circumstances but I would have expected a higher percentage by now.

I hope there weren't too many time wasters

Edited by Chris M
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I had hoped as I'm sure many others will have, that more deposits would have been paid by now.

 

I suppose the expression of interest scenario does get a number of people saying I'm interested, but when it comes to laying down hard cash some will always melt away.

 

I reckon if we can get this model over the line and it turns out a real show stopper, any future models would/will attract positive interest where deposits are forthcoming in abundance.

 

Thinking back to when this crowdfunding was announced the N gauge forum had a number of posters saying they were interested, but would not commit as they hadn't seen a model from DJM.  Many are likely holding back and letting others take the plunge. 

 

Well, I really do hope the King does come to fruition, and I dare say Dave Jones will remember those of us who have shown confidence in him and his business.

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I had hoped as I'm sure many others will have, that more deposits would have been paid by now.

 

I suppose the expression of interest scenario does get a number of people saying I'm interested, but when it comes to laying down hard cash some will always melt away.

 

I reckon if we can get this model over the line and it turns out a real show stopper, any future models would/will attract positive interest where deposits are forthcoming in abundance.

 

Thinking back to when this crowdfunding was announced the N gauge forum had a number of posters saying they were interested, but would not commit as they hadn't seen a model from DJM.  Many are likely holding back and letting others take the plunge. 

 

Well, I really do hope the King does come to fruition, and I dare say Dave Jones will remember those of us who have shown confidence in him and his business.

i dont think it wont reach the figures, and i'm sure that there are those out there (and we all know who they are), who will talk down anything, because its a) too expensive, b) not their thing, c) not the right colour, d) not the right manufacturer and so on, etc.

 

Negativity does seem prevelant on forums these days, which is ironic as i dont think we have ever had it so good as modellers,

but its ready, it will go to tooling, but it may take a little longer and it would be ashame to lose the tooling slot. but i can always get another one of those. lol

 

I would hope that the 'nay sayers' havnt put off the modellers that are quiet on here and more positive about things.

 

anyway, lets see what the next few months bring regarding sales etc with advertising and press releases.

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Could I ask, without you having to reveal any sensitive information, how long this would be likely to take once tooling commences, as this would determine whether I might order one or several (I would like to save up and budget for them)

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Could I ask, without you having to reveal any sensitive information, how long this would be likely to take once tooling commences, as this would determine whether I might order one or several (I would like to save up and budget for them)

once metal cutting takes place, its about 6-8 weeks until first ep, then the same again for second ep, about a month for painted samples, 6 weeks for manufacture, 6-8 weeks for transport, and distribution and a bit of wriggle room.

 

Cheers

Dave

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once metal cutting takes place, its about 6-8 weeks until first ep, then the same again for second ep, about a month for painted samples, 6 weeks for manufacture, 6-8 weeks for transport, and distribution and a bit of wriggle room.

 

Cheers

Dave

Thank you! So we are looking at about just over 6 months minimum- off to do some sums...
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The numbers do look disappointing, especially as they are spread over all the livery options.

I can imagine that there's more demand for some options than than for others. I can also imagine that some modellers have some flexibility; I certainly do, so I have written directly to Dave offering to change my livery option if it will help - my layout is a "working steam museum" that allows me to apply Rule 1 with a great deal of freedom. If anyone else is in a position to do so, Dave might find a bit of flexibility helpful.

- Michael

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It does look diappointing, but maybe as Dave said it is just a matter of timing. I would have thought there is easily sufficient market in N for a decent quality RTR King, after all, there has to date only been the very poor Farish one which didn't have too many production runs, possibly even just one - did Bachmann even reincarnate it? Then there's the good but niche Foxhunter kit. 

 

Maybe word needs spreading, as RevolutioN discovered with the Class B, tank, initial take up by transition modelers was slow, but once word got round they ended up making nearly 4000! Maybe also, people (no criticism intended) would prefer to have already seen an N loco produced in Dave's name before committing, sadly not now going to happen re: the Clayton. What we do know is that Dave has a knowledge of the industry, and experience in the field. His Mermaid and hopefully soon to arrive Shark wagons show us what he can do.

 

My reason for not supporting this one is simply having less interest in GW locos or modelling BR WR so not able to justify under Rule 1. AS has been mentioned above, for many Rule 1 is a good enough reason. 

 

Roy

Edited by Roy L S
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Hi chaps,

 

Like i've said, i'm not unduly worried as there is a pattern to this crowdfunding 'malarkey'  (i love that word) regarding consciousness in peoples thoughts.

 

I'll show the chassis mechanics on here in a bit, as it might please some of you. 

 

Cheers

Dave

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Hi everyone,

Crowdfunding pre-orders have been open around a month on this project and at present we are at the following figures to share with you.

 

Original Crowdfunder sign ups / 'expressions of interest' = 706

Current Crowdfunder deposits paid                                  = 264

 

Now on paper, as you read this, it seems a problem. But what needs to be remembered is that the crowdfunding was open many many months to get to the 706 figure, as information takes time to 'propagate' through the press, internet, clubs etc and reach the consciousness of the modeller who still might want a King but didn't, express, and those that did but as yet dont realise the deposit payments are now open. so please spread the word if your able.

 

Things are progressing though , and i have paid a deposit to China against the tooling, and am still trying to get a 3D company to print the models for display at upcoming shows. I'm surprised at the amount of professional companies that don't want the business and say its too difficult. so the search continues.

 

More updates when i have them

cheers

Dave

 

 

Are those figures the number of individuals who have paid deposits or the number of models? I've paid the deposit for two so do I count as one or two of those figures?

 

Dave

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I expressed an interest in this project and I'd like to back it, so may I clarify a few points please:

 

Given that CAD and tooling deposits have already been paid, will deposits be returned in full if this project fails to proceed?

 

Prior to a production decision, will deposits be used to fund other projects?

 

Several crowdfunded projects elsewhere are still not in tooling more than a year after opening for deposits. May we have an indication please how long backers of this one may have to wait for a go/no go decision.

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Given the immanence of Christmas I suspect family budgets are part of the slow uptake. I think patience will get it over the line :yes:

I assume you’re joking? It’s more than a quarter of a year away!

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Not even close, December far outstrips any other month in retail. month on month stats. December is >50% higher than October, November is closer, driven in part by Black Friday in recent years.

 

I get that the very organised will do their Christmas shopping in October, but I’ll wager those who are sufficiently organised also ‘normalise’ their finances throughout the year and thus probably won’t need to hold off purchases now!

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